my new bridgeport is about finished!!!

as I posted before I bought a bridgeport. here is what I found and have done.
I got a V.F.D. to run the original 3 PH motor. this was way cheaper and less work than swapping to another motor. when I hooked it up and started the machine it was prety loud. I did a little bit of cutting but I did not want to junk out the spindle so I stopped. I found parts fairly hard to get, so I need to be carefull with them all. with this in mind I decided to replace ALL the bearings. I did the ones in the motor first and it sounds WAY better. I spent a bit of time on a machine web page and talking to the guys at a local bearing house. I chose to replace ALL the bearings in the entire head. keep in mind matched sets are just over $300 . I did not want to risk any old bearings wipeing out the new ones so I went for it. yesterday I got everything all togeather and started it up again. WOW it sounds much better!
when I got the machine it had clearly sit a long time I think that is why all the bearings were not turning properly, and the lube on the ways had turned to varnish like stuff. I cleaned the ways and traveled everything back and forth to its limits. now here is ware I made my first mistake. I pumped in bearing grease. CRAP. oh well what did I know. after reading a LOT I now know that the grease fittings do NOT take grease but way lube instead. so I had to clean out the grease before it dried up in their. yesterday I removed the fittings and dug out then sprayed out as much grease as I could. finealy I pumped a BUNCH of way oil throuigh till the grease stopped comming out.
I have special ordered the bearings for the table drive but they are very hard to get and I do not have them yet but i can still use the machine by hand feeding. hopefully they will be in hand in a few more weeks....
at this point I have a couple more small things to do, like install and true jaws on the vise, zero out the head in relationship to the table, "everything exactly at 90 degrees in all directions". I got a bunch of tooling allready and I should be ready to have some fun, playing with some first trial work very soon! I have some large tool holders for my lathe to be cut down to fit my small machine, I think this will be a good first project.

the machine has cost a bit more than I first expected but I guess everything is like that. rite?? all in all with tooling it has cost about the same as a good bench top mill without tooling, "not mini mill". not bad consitering I ended up with a full size floor modle, with all new bearings, lots of tooling, and it is a heavy duty USA made machine!! I wish it was less $$ but I guess I can't complaine.
anyway thanks for reading hotbarrel

Be happy you made the choice, Brideports are the king of mills, you can now make anything you want - any size.. Good idea on the bearings. We have a lot of these old boys at work - and a bunch of the new CNC versions.. quality.

thanks guys
Winn yes I am familiar with ball screws, I worked in a tap manufactoring factory for about 1 year. allmost everything their used them with a step motor. with a proper preload their was zero backlash in a ball screw. everything their was extreamly tight tollerance 2, tenths was consitered a large measurement, and their were times I was measureing in the mill's yes .000001 WOW

I would love to convert it over BUT money is a deciding factor now. I do not want to sink any more into this machine.
OH hay ... happy holidays everyone HB

Damn, I really envy you guys! The best I can do is go to the local schools to use their machines. One of these days I'll have enough money to buy my first full size mill. I'd really like to get one of the ones with a x,y, and z automatic feeds, d.r.o., and can handle basic g-coding. You'd be amazed what one of these manual mills that has been retrofitted with programming capabilities can do. You'd be amazed at the price as well.

HB, where did you get yours at? How did you know whether you were getting a good deal or not?

hay hay friend ! long time no see
I got my mill at the same place I got the lathe. to be honest I was going to but a mill from harbor freight, but I decided to call this guy as a shot in the dark. he said he had something so I went down and took a look.
As for how did I know if it was a good deal.... yikes... I kind of risked it.. I admit it.
he told me it did not have a bunch of hard use and was still in basicaly good condition but it has sit for a very long time.
I could see prety good scraping marks on the ways were I could see and that is a good sign. their was no way of knowing the bearings were all sticky till I ran it, so I guess it was not his fault they had all dried up. the grease in the motor bearings was like rubber and the spidle bearings ware the oil had turned to like varnish.
I guess I won some and lost some. but now I have a machine with good ways all around and new bearings all around. win - win